your utmoft madness of ambition, and the rage of war: but if we could be heard we would fay, as loudly as polible, be wife, oh! ye governors, be inftructed oh! ye warriors of the earth, know that with efforts you cannot finally triumph over the cause of honour, rectitude, and religion. Meaning, reader, the infernal confpiracy against focial order, the prominent features of which are now completely before us all. This is modeftly termed a very judicious difcourfe by the Reviewer, probably the very fame gentleman that wrote it. "One more inftance I will adduce, that we may fully convict this Review of Treafon, from the mouth at least of three witneffes, and the laft fhall be a female, after which I fhall confign it to the nation, that its demerits may be fairly appreciated. We must get rid, (fays Mrs. Woliftonecraft,) of all the notions drawn from the wild traditions of original fin, the eating of the apple, the theft of Prometheus, the opening of Pandora's box, and other fables too tedious to enumerate, on which priests have erected their tremendous structures of impofitions, to perfuade us that we are naturally inclined to evil, * * one principle of action is sufficient, refpect thyfelf,' (here we fee the whole drift of the confpiracy, with respect to religion, now let us fee what is to be done with the fate.) It is not paradoxical to affert that the focial virtues are nipt in the bud by the very laws of faciety, (this expreffion is decifive, let us however examine a few more,) * thus much appears certain, that a state will infallibly grow old and feeble, if hereditary riches fupport hereditary rank, under any defeription, but when courts, and primogeniture are done away; and fimple and equal laws are established, what is to prevent each gene. ration from retaining the vigour of youth?' "In contemplating the French revolution (fay the Reviewers, in their critique upon this brutal publication) it is not easy to dilate the mind to a full conception of the magnitude of the event. Narrow intellects incapable of embracing the whole extent of the subject, (meaning evidently the whole extent of the conspiracy,) are loft amidst a confufed mafs of facts, rifing in fucceffion with unexampled rapidity. Feeble minds, borne away by the inftinctive impreffion of the moment, are overpowered with horror, at the barbarities which bave blackened the fcene; and while they ought to think deeply, can only figh and lament. The selfish and bigotted-two pretty numerous claffes --can only fix their eyes upon thofe points of the paffing scene, which excite alarm for the fafety of the ancient, Splendid, and lucra tive fyftem of fuperftition and tyranny. It is not from fuch fpectators that the world is to expect that comprehenfive furvey of the recent events of France, which can alone lead to a juft eftimate of the prefent interefts of neighbouring nations; or to a judicious accommodation of their public meafures, to the circumfiances of the times. Such enlarged views and wife conclufions, can only be the refult, of a diligent and accurate examination of facts; carried on under under the direction of a fund judgement well exercised in the operation of tracing back effects to their caufes; an enlightened underftanding, amply fupplied with correct ideas on the principles of policy and morals; and a liberal fpirit, unconfined by national prejudices, and warmed by the fteady flame of univerfal philanthropy. Furnished with thefe qualifications for the undertaking, in a degree, which in a woman may appear to male vanity highly aftonishing, Mrs. Wollstonecraft has begun an "Hiftorical and Moral View of the French Revolution," which from the prefent Specimen of the work, will, we have no doubt, attract the admiration of the critic and command the serious attention of the moralist and statesman. As a production of genius, it has an energy of diction, and a richness of imagery, which in a work on a lefs important fubject might be entitled to the first praife. But its chief excellence, which will doubtlefs recommend it to the diligent perufal of all who interest themselves in public tranfactions, is, that it difcuffes the subject with a degree of impartiality, fcarcely at prefent to be expected, with a folidity and depth of thought, which, notwithstanding the odium that has of late fallen upon philofophy, we will ventute to call truly philofophical, and which will not fail to render the work highly useful in promoting the most important interefts of human fociety"+-or, in other words, the GRAND CONSPIRACY AGAINST SOCIAL ORDER, and every thing really dear to man." CRITICAL REVIEW. "I threw out an intimation at an early part of this inquiry, that the Critical Review's affected oppofition to Socinian principles might poffibly be adopted to give a lefs fufpected and therefore a more extenfive influence to its political reasonings; and in the following extracts may be found fome exiftent grounds for this fuppofition. We congratulate Mr. Simeon on his mode of analyfing a fermon, which we doubt not will in due time lead him to found knowledge. He will by degrees examine more accurately every pofition, and he will not, 6 "The critic has treated us farther with the following fpecimens of DISTINCT and CORRECT IDEAS from this lady's production, perhaps the great advantage of eloquence, is that impreffing the refults of thinking on minds alive only to emotion, it gives wings to the flow foot of reafon, and fire to the cold labours of investigation;" --and again, nevertheless in treating with the nobles, the angles of pride, which time alone could have fmoothed filently away, were perhaps too rudely knocked off, for the folly of diftinctions was rapidly wearing itself out, and would probably have melted gradually before the rational opinions that were continually gaining ground, fructifying the foil as they diffolved, instead of which it was drifted by a hurricane to spread deftruction around as it fell.'will probably fee nothing but bombaft in all this." +Analytical Review, Vol, XX, p. 339." -The reader fome fome few years hence, speak fo pofitively, and upon fuch weak grounds, on eternal damnation, as he has done in the skeleton of this difcourfe." I think this not the language of a Review zealous for the peculiar, the difcriminating doctrines of chriftianity; and it is rather improbable that fo profeffed an infidel as Pr-ftley fhould be held up in fuch partial language as the following, by a periodical publication, really inimical to his principles, either political or religious. Every liberal and humane mind, to whatever political party it may incline, will rejoice that the author of this work has found an afylum abroad ;+ and every christian of whatever denomination, will be pleased to fee that, fill zealous for the cause of religion, Dr. Pr-ftley refifts the attacks of the infidels on the other fide of the Atlantic.' "It appears perfectly natural for me, in confequence of this ob vious partiality, to endeavour, in the courfe of our prefent enquiry, to trace out a family likeness betwixt our Review, and this ill-fated Doctor, for if this fhould happen to be particularly ftriking, fhall I naturally confider my work, as far as it relates to the Critical Re view, nearly upon the finifh. In part the third of this publication, for the year 1794, P. 546, we are favoured with this manly, fen fible extract, from a book, intitled, The Life and Crimes of the Duke of Orleans;' and with the confequent illiberal critique upon it. Always when we hear declamation against the pretended defpotifm which reigned in France, we cannot help fmiling; and this fimile is not that of Democritus, but the exhalation of a croud of fentiments and ideas which appertain to reafon, to experience, and to the knowledge of the hunian heaat.-Will they fay that the form of government established in France, and fubfifting for fo many ages, was defpotic Did the fovereign enjoy arbritary power?-Were there not laws to which he himself owed the firft fubmiffion; and which he could not violate? This principle being established it is evident, that if the laws were fometimes violated by the delegates of authority, it is not the form of government which is in the fault; and that, confequently, there was no occafion to deftroy the form in order to prevent violations. Why then fap fundamental bafes which even guarded against defpotifm; and on which the French Empire repofed, and flourished fo long? The abufes alone fhould have been corrected and * "Critical Review, part 1ft, for 1797, P. 353." "Critical Review, part 1ft, for 1797, P. 47.—Every humane mind, I fhould rather imagine, will think the Reviewers' remark an illiberal libel upon the inhabitants of Birmingham, who would affuredly have continued to have increased the Doctor's fortune, already rendered handfome by their munificence, if the consciousness of having contributed to the ignominious death of his loyal but miftaken neighbours had not funk the bully into a coward; and sent him, with an evident degree of uncafinefs upon his confcience, into merited, though voluntary, exile." لله all agreed in this point. The refponfibility of minifters, a new order in the finances, fome reforms dictated by a wife and enlightened conomy; in fine, the relief of the indigent clafs of people, which would indeed have been a natural confequence of these measures; fuch were the principal means which ought to have been employed; falutary and efficacious in their nature, the will of their fovereign would have rendered them permanent.' "So far this fenfible writer; we come now to the critique upon it. Pretty declamation, and worthy to be bound up with Cardon's ironical Defence of Nero. It is well known that the nobles refufed to grant any proper reform;* and were determined to preferve all the ancient abufes; and as nothing was granted, ‡ every thing was taken. Such is the infatuating nature of power, that liberty is generally bought with blood. Charles the firit would, at laft, have granted all, but all would not be taken as a grant; for the vanquished cannot grant. May a beneficent Providence, amidst the progrefs of political experience, avert a repetition of fuch evils in this country, and may thofe rafh men, who now treat measures which are neceffary to the happy duration of our conftitution, as the imaginations of fedition, learn to concede before an enlightened people, amongst whom liberty has always prevailed, at the last pour an accumulated mass of indignation upon their devoted heads.' "This, to a common reader, certainly founds like George's devoted head in a basket,' but we will now hear what the Doctor will fay upon fimilar fubjects- Things are already in fuch a train,§ that though no man can forefec the particular time and manner of the change, in favour of Unitarianifm, we may be as certain of its taking place as if we actually faw it accomplished, and, till things are perfectly ripe for fuch a Revolution, it would be abfurd to expect it, and in vain to attempt it.' "The Doctor's political connexions are pretty well known; and, thefe afcertained, there feems now but little difficulty in knowing where to clafs the Review." (To be continued.) ART. III. Arthur Fitz-Albini. A Novel. (Concluded from P. 685. VOL. 1.) N our laft number we exhibited fome extracts of profe from this novel; one fpecimen of poetical compofition, difplayed in thefe volumes, correfponds with the poet of Shakespeare: "the poet's eye, in a fine phrenzy rolling, A lie direct. + Lie the fecond. Lie the third. glances glances from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; and, as imagination fhadows forth the form of things unfeen, gives to aerial nothing a local habitation, and a name." The following lines were written in a kind of temporary madness, when Fitz-Albini "faw, or thought he faw," the Dæmons of Destruction already in the act of feizing upon the feat of his ancestors. "He feemed a long while loft in a dream;-he started, and looked to the distant and indiftinct gate of the park; he thought he saw a croud of figures entering it. Hark! he exclaimed: "O hark! See Ruin enters! By his fide, O view the gaunt relentless fiends that ride! See Peculation, and Perverted-Law, And bloated Wealth, whom hounds of Murder draw; Extortion, mounted on the pamper'd steed, Which the laft tears of starv'd Misfortune feed: Hark, they approach!-Ye fiends of Hell, away!... Ye lawns, on which my happy childhood play'd, Laugh at your fhricks, and lay your glories low? Of Mirth went round, the genial goblet o'er; Ye |